Whitehall Borough Police Briefs (March 7-20)

"All of us are involved in this. Part of good crime prevention is, if you seeing something unusual ... something that you have to take a double take on, call the police. Have them go out and check the people out."

Those were the words of  Chief Donald R. Dolfi while he was providing police briefs that included reports of two suspected burglarized homes in the same general area of on March 11.

"(In the areas of both homes), we've had, after the fact, people calling us and saying, 'I saw somebody walking here, saw somebody walking there,'" Dolfi said.

"Obviously, we're tracking down and pursuing all the leads that are given to us, but once again, we're all in this together."

One of the suspected March 11 burglaries is believed to have occurred sometime between approximately 8 a.m. and 2:34 p.m. that day when a resident in the 3800 block of Provost Road called the Whitehall Police Department to report being victimized.

The resident said that valuable electronics and jewelry were taken from the Provost home. Police officers searched the home and processed the crime scene. Officers also spoke to area residents to try to gather information on the alleged burglary.

The district attorney office's crime scene unit is investigating the incident, as it is another potential Whitehall burglary on March 11 in the nearby 4300 block of Seton Drive.

A resident from that area contacted Whitehall police at approximately 4:45 p.m. that same day to report another burglary. That resident reported leaving her Seton home at approximately 7:30 a.m. that day and returning at 4:15 p.m. to find items missing from the residence.

Again, both burglaries are under investigation, and Dolfi is urging borough residents to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious.

Earlier that week, on March 8 at approximately 6:56 p.m., a resident from the 5000 block of Spring Valley Drive contacted Whitehall police to report that his yard had been vandalized by a vehicle. The resident followed the vehicle and obtained a license-plate number, which he provided to the police.

Whitehall police eventually found the plate's vehicle and questioned two juveniles who were believed to have been in the vehicle at the time that it ran through the victim's yard. The juveniles admitted that the car had swerved because of a heated argument between them while one of them was driving. The driver of the vehicle's family agreed to repair the victim's yard.

On March 12 at approximately 5:48 a.m., Whitehall police received a call from an employee of on Route 51. The caller reported that two men, later identified as brothers Frederick Brennfleck, 51, of 3177 Woodridge Drive in Whitehall, and Stephen Brennfleck, 49, of 2212 Lutz Ave. in the Carrick neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh, were arguing and fighting with each other in front of the business.

One of the brothers fled the scene of the incident in a vehicle while the other remained at the scene with non-serious injuries. The fleeing man was eventually found, and both men are being charged with disorderly conduct.

Later that day at approximately 7:52 p.m., Whitehall police responded to a call from two young men in their 20s. The two men said that they were walking in the 1700 block of Skyline Drive in the  complex when an older man exited his vehicle and shoved one of them before leaving the scene in that vehicle.

Dolfi said that it is not clear why the man shoved one of the two younger men, but after receiving a description of the older man and his vehicle, Whitehall officers tracked the man down. They charged Mark Christopher Nelson, 44, of 1725 Skyline Drive, Apt. 9, with harassment.

On March 19 at approximately 10:15 p.m., police again responded to an incident in the 1700 block of Skyline Drive. A resident reported that his mother-in-law's vehicle was damaged while parked at that location but that no information was available on who may have done the damage. The man said that the car was parked at around 6 p.m. that day in the spot where it was damaged, and that the damage must have occurred sometime between then and 10:15 p.m.

Police are investigating.